Mayoral Race Threatens to Shake Up Tradition Where Jesus Grew Up

by Lucy

Ramiz Jaraisi has been the mayor of Nazareth, Israel for almost 20 years. Since 1975, the Nazareth Democratic Front has been running the city. “This is one of the most well-known cities in the world, the place where Christianity started,”said Mr. Jaraisi.

But citizens in Nazareth say it is time for change. Mr. Jaraisi has been elected mayor four times, with the votes of both Muslims and Christians. Now, he is facing a serious challenge. Ali Salam, Mr. Jaraisi’s former deputy, is one of four candidates running against him. Another strong contender is Haneen Zoabi, a Muslim woman and a firebrand member of the Israeli Parliament representing Balad. Mr. Jaraisi is hoping to draw at least 40 percent of the vote and win in the first round. If not, Mr. Abu Nassar said, he might face an alliance of opponents in a runoff.

Municipal elections are mostly affairs in Israel, but this time, a few of the races are gaining national attention. In Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, a rightist who has increased cultural activities and attracted numerous international events to West Jerusalem in the past few years, is being challenged by Moshe Lion, a former civil servant

Residents of Nazareth complain a lot about the infrastructure. More than 1,000 residents move out each year, even though the Jewish mayor insists on retaining its Jewish character to the point where he has refused to consider opening an Arabic-language school.

Both Mr. Jaraisi and Ms. Zoabi say many of the city’s problems are the result of decades of state discrimination against the Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population of eight million.

Mr. Jaraisi is promising to build new neighborhoods and said construction on a cultural center with an auditorium, will begin in 2014. Ms. Zoabi’s campaign brochure complains that Mr. Jaraisi and the Democratic Front have been promising to build the cultural center for the past 10 years.

Reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/world/middleeast/mayoral-race-threatens-stability-in-jesus-childhood-home.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=world

Resolutions on U.S. military bases overseas

by Lucy

WHEREAS, the official number of U.S. military bases overseas is 865. It is the largest one in the world; and

WHEREAS, the military bases overseas cost a lot and may affect the American economy to some degree. U.S. was ranked NO.1 in military expenditure in the world with 650 billion dollars in 2008; and

WHEREAS, the number of injured and dead soldiers is large; and

WHEREAS, it will waste huge amount of natural resources for unnecessary uses, and have bad effect on environment; and

WHEREAS, criminous U.S. military soldiers will not be punished by the local police, instead they will be sent back to America. So the number will enlarge; and

WHEREAS, it will influence the host countries’ authorities and interfere the politics.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE TO RESOLVED, cut the expenditure in U.S. military cost; cut down the number of soldiers for military bases overseas;   let more United Union armies help the poor countries  that need  help.     

              

Lucy&Effie

Problems in Fukushima are never ending

by Corentin Sunday, several tank areas at the plant have overflowed. It’s the first time it’s happened.We don’t know yet how many water overflowed, but probably radioactive water went to the sea. Furthermore, some tank where the radioactivity was above the limit, leaked into more than the half of the plant’s 23 tank areas. To resolve the problem, the utility is renewing today water in to decrease radiation levels, and get an acceptable rate. In April radioactive water leaks from reservoirs were already discovered, so they stopped using them. It was in preparation for the typhoon Wipha, last week. The biggest radioactivity is 29.000 becquerels, air in Fukushima is about 4 million times more radioactive than courant air. The end of this story is still far. There is no real solution to this problem. We don’t control the nuclear power and its consequences. All the Pacific Ocean is paying for this disaster. A lot of countries which are on this ocean risk to suffer from that, Japan in first. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/21/national/rainwater-flows-over-tank-barriers-at-fukushima-no-1/#.UmTAsPl7KSo

China's Censorship Rule and China

By Elaine

1979,Chinese economic reform (literally "Reform and Opening up") ushered a new era of Chinese development, the outcome of which not merely opened its door for the sake of further economic development as well as decreased the government’s engagement in national economy, but also rebuilt friendly bridges into outside world as a means of absorbing beneficial information. So how does China define the world beneficial？This is where the problem lies nowadays.

  

 From the sources, the author whose works describing sex explicitly or attempting to explain China’s complex politics and glamorous history will unexpectedly be faced with the “egregious” censorship machine that has no appreciation of literary masterpieces nor is pursuing the goal of enriching the spiritual world. The censors seem to have endless passion in from removing several chapters that tarnish the communist party to finding tiny adjective which unsuitable for Chairman Mao; from hiding the name of the city to revising the translation of the title. From an objective perspective, it ruins the original ideas of the author and sounds like a child clumsily tried to hide his mistake from their families. Indeed it is, and many western authors get indignant when their coherent ideas become pieces as a consequence of being carved to Chinese market place. Some authors prefer to abandon Chinese lucrative market rather than bend to their principles being accuracy. It is a fact that a quite number of novels are not allowed to put on Chinese shelves and a larger number of books Chinese people read are “purified” by their considerate government. In other word, the press is strictly controlled by the government and serves its responsibility to protect the image of the communist and refuse outside viewpoints giving explanations to Chinese political events and history.

However, compared with the time they blocked the access to the world, now they permit a world of information rushing to its land, though there exist unpleasant but necessary bargains, most information there available is better than none. Changes began thirty years ago, which is not a long time, in fact, a short time for a big country whose history never has a time being “open” as today is .

It requires some time to go through those necessary phases: from being obstinate to acknowledge the infallibility to admit the previous political incorrectness. Let us put it this way, give those communists time to be mature, and they will understand the first step to solve a problem is to realize where it is, the real Titan never dares to speak out their faults, and a strong nation can hold integrity not merely the different ethnic groups but also envelope the ideology which even in opposite side. 

source:Authors Accept Censors’ Rules to Sell in China - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/world/asia/authors-accept-censors-rules-to-sell-in-china.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp&

Abduction by North Korea by Ryosuke

Abduction is a problem between Japan and North Korea. Abduction means that taking people away. In 1970s, North Korea's agents came to Japan by ships, and they abducted Japanese people to North Korea because North Korea wanted Japanese people as teachers of Japanese. The reason why they took Japanese people away is that they tried to dispatch agents who pretend they are from South Korea into South Korea; however, it turned out that it was difficult to dispatch agents who pretended they were South Korean. Thus, North Korea made a new strategy, which was that taking Japanese people into North Korea and having them teach Japanese and Japanese culture so that the agents from North Korea can get in South Korea. In fact, this strategy was conducted, and 17 Japanese people were abducted. A few of them could come back to Japan recently, but almost all of them are still in North Korea. However, it is also said that they already died because even North Korea doesn't have sure information. Now, Japanese government is still discussing this issue with North Korea, but it is difficult to resolve this problem. In my opinion, North Korea should listen to the world's opinion and have responsibility about what they did because the families that lost their children or relatives are still waiting for the abductees.

Source: http://www.rips.or.jp/research/RIPS_Policy_Perspectives_10.pdf
            http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/07/05/japan-north-korea-and-the-abduction-issue/

30 million people still live in slavery, human rights group says

By Lynn

The Global Slavery Index published by the Austrlia-based Walk Free Foundation reported that almost 30 million people in the world are living in modern-day slavery.
This index is supported by the former U.S Secretary Hillary clinton, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

It says the African nation of Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan and India have the highest number of slaves in proportion of the population.
Also, China and Russia are in the top list of countries with large number of slaves.

The index says, slavery includes domestic servitude, forced brgging, forced labor, human traffcking, the sale and exploitation of children and force marriage.

The U.S was ranked 134th, worse than Barbados (135), South Korea(137), Hong Kong (141), Costa Rica(146), and Cuba (149).
The reason why U.S is in low risk is that it is the destinations for human trafficking because of the demand for cheap labour.

The report said that the countries(U.K. , Ireland, Island) who got the best rankings still have people in modern-slavery, too which is estimated 4,200-4,600 people.

How can there still be slavery in this modern world?
Are they adopting an expedient?
This article reminds me of the history of Haiti.

Souce: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/17/21005059-30-million-people-still-live-in-slavery-human-rights-group-says?lite

Resolution for International Aid to Haiti

By  
Min Tang
Yilun  Liu

10/16/2013 

  

Whereas, in 1942, when Christopher Columbus arrived Haiti, he brought the slavery to native people in Haiti; and

Whereas, because of backward technology and geographic position in Haiti, people there always suffer inevitable natural disasters, recently  in 2010; and

Whereas, although Haiti became an independent nation, it was forced to pay war reparations to France unfairly which lead to the poverty of Haiti in some extent.

 

Now, therefore, be it resolved, that 
1. Invest money to help them rebuild the public services such as hospitals, transportations, police stations.
2. Improve the local education by sending and encouraging  volunteers to provide training in every field of professions.
3. Establish the  law  and  send  troops to  maintain the public safety.
4.Take a low  interest policy to solve their essential problemsincluding building new factories,new housing  and  satisfying  the survival needs.